‘Looper’ is quietly impressive, for a time-traveling gangster film

Most films set in the future have a sleek look; laser blasters, hover cars, smooth lines to buildings and other surfaces. Even dystopian fare such as “Blade Runner” has modern-looking slums.

“Looper” is different. In 2044, there are a few futuristic conveniences, but all of the vehicles are 2010-era models with solar panels hooked to the fuel intakes. The homeless, poor and lower middle class all live shabbily. The mob controls all of the shady entertainments and hit men, leeching off the less fortunate. And the weapons are still bullets, pistols and shotguns.

There are two types of hit men for the Kansas City mob: the “gat men” who are the enforcers for the chief mobster, Abe (Jeff Daniels); and the “loopers.” In thirty years, time travel to the past will be invented and immediately outlawed. Since bodies cannot be disposed of easily in the future, the mob sends them back thirty years to be executed by the loopers. They wait at a site at a predetermined time, a trussed-up and hooded figure appears, and they blow him away with a blunderbuss. They collect their pay in silver bars, strapped to the victim’s back.

The sting in the tail is that when the mob decides it’s time to end a looper’s contract, they send his future self back to be killed, along with gold bars to close the contract. The looper is then considered to be “closed.” He now has thirty years to live out his life to the extent that he can.

Joe Simmons (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is a looper. He’s studying French and saving his bars, hoping to emigrate when his loop closes. He frequents the club that Abe owns and dates one of the dancers there (Piper Perabo). He’s a junkie and a wealthy man in a city where everyone else is desperately poor.

One day, his best friend and fellow looper Seth (Paul Dano) comes to his apartment in a panic; his loop was being closed but he let his future self get the drop on him. Before the future Seth escaped, he told the present Seth about a new mob enforcer in the future named “The Rainmaker” who was closing all the loops. Joe reluctantly hides him, but Abe convinces Joe to give him up.

Sometime later, Joe is waiting at his usual spot for his next victim. A man appears, but this time without the usual hood. This makes Joe hesitate, and the man tries to flee. Joe fires and hits him in the back, but the man flings the gold bars strapped to his back at him, knocking Joe out. It’s Old Joe (Bruce Willis), and he’s voluntarily come back to try and stop the Rainmaker in order to change his own future.

There’s a whole lot more, but this is a movie where the subplots take on lives of their own, so I don’t want to ruin it for you.

Extras:

• Commentary with director Rian Johnson, Gordon-Levitt and Emily Blunt
• Looper: From the Beginning: Making-of-featurette is fairly standard; director Johnson talks about having the idea 10 years ago; Gordon-Levitt gets made up to more resemble Willis; the cast waxes rhapsodic about the project and the director.• 5 deleted scenes with commentary
• Scoring Looper: Composer Nathan Johnson (director Rian’s cousin) talks about how he bought a digital recorder and recorded everyday sounds while the film was shooting, then manipulated and mixed them together to create the soundtrack. This was actually pretty interesting, especially if you’re someone who’s played around with sound editing and mixing programs on the computer, like Sony’s “Acid” or Propellerhead Sofware’s “Reason.”• Looper animated trailer: Rotoscopes scenes from the film and turns them into animation; meh.

BD adds:

• The Science of Time Travel: Featurette gives a short discourse on the plot device, to include references to Mark Twain and H.G. Wells, along with asides on Albert Einstein’s Theory of Relativity. It also details the rules the film set for itself.• 17 additional deleted scenes with commentary.

Not sure which deleted scenes are not included on the DVD, but the ones I saw on the BD give a lot more information about Old Joe’s life before he travels back in time.

I said the subplots take on lives of their own. Some of them, like that of Sara (Emily Blunt) and Cid (Pierce Gagnon), start off slow but wind up throwing you for a real loop (pun sort of intended). Old Joe’s mission to take out the Rainmaker leads to some horrifying scenes, especially in light of recent events. And Daniels turns in a nice performance as Abe, the mobster sent from the future to run the operation in 1944.

Others seem a bit extraneous and could have been cut from the script without too much complaint. I found the “loose cannon” character of “gat man” Kid Blue (Noah Segan) to be irritating and unnecessary. I think an expansion of the minor character of Jesse (Garret Dillahunt) would have worked better. And the “mutation” of minor telekinetic powers among some humans did telegraph to how the film might resolve itself.

Bottom line: This is a good one. It really moves quietly and thoughtfully for a gangster film, leading to some interesting introspection on what you would do if you knew how long your days were numbered in a dystopian future. It’s probably not necessary to pick it up on BD (unless you want those extra deleted scenes), but it has enough to make you want to see it again someday, which is why we all collect DVDs/BDs in the first place, right?

Harry Thomas

One Response

[...] Looper Sony, 119 minutes, R DVD: $30.99 BD: $35.99 Time travel has been invented – but it is illegal and only available on the black market. When the mob wants to get rid of someone, they will send their target 30 years into the past where a ‘looper’ – a hired gun, like Joe (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) – is waiting to mop up. Joe is getting rich and life is good – until the day the mob decides to ‘close the loop,’ sending back Joe’s future self (Bruce Willis) for assassination. Also stars Emily Blunt, Paul Dano, and Jeff Daniels. This looks like the coolest movie I didn’t get the chance to see this past summer. Looking forward to it. DVD extras: commentary, deleted scenes, featurettes. BD extras: deleted scenes, featurette. (Update: My review is here.) [...]

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